People Friday | Hello Tech Pros

AB Periasamy builds software like an artist builds a masterpiece. By inspiring others to believe in the idea and the design and contribute to it's success. Anand Babu (AB) Periasamy is a free software contributor, angel investor and an entrepreneur.  AB is one of the founders of Minio, an open source cloud storage server. Prior to Minio, AB co-founded Gluster, an open source distributed filesystem. AB is also on the board of Free Software Foundation - India and has authored GNU FreeIPMI and GNU FreeTalk. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/ab-periasamy-people/ Key Takeaways Don't have people managers. Instead, build a culture that encourages self-managing individuals. Software development is more like creating art than mass-producing products in a factory. Build the culture and they will come. Industry experts may be brilliant and also be the wrong people to have on your team. They come with pre-conceptions on what will work and what won't. They might be motivated by money instead of by your goals. Min

Edward Fry advises enterprises on ways to streamline their software development to drive business results.  He has been working with IT for over 20 years and has been passionate about technology all his life.  Edward lives in Oklahoma City with his wife, Linda, and 3 children. Edward was a past guest on Hello Tech Pros episode 16 - Applying Kanban to Your Inbox and Calendar — Productivity Tuesday Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/edward-fry-people/ Key Takeaways Gartner found that in most business challenges 60% involved people, 20% process and 20% technology. Communication recipients are always thinking WIIFM - "What's In It For Me?" "How can I improve my performance review this month or enhance my credibility?" "Is this going to require a lot of extra effort from me?" When trying to get buy-in, look at the motivations of the individuals. Part of a change management or buy-in process is getting excitement. Organizations need to work to convey that they care about the employees opinions. Most people

Mike Crandall is a Speaker, Consultant, Coach and Trainer focused on Proactive Business Growth. He is brought in by Business Owners and Executives to work on the Behaviors, Attitudes, Techniques, and Guts needed to be more Successful in Business Improvement, Sales Growth, and Employee Development. His firm specializes in helping identify the Blind Spots and Obstacles that are holding you back and then implementing Systems, Behaviors, and Guts to become more Successful. Clients ultimately develop new Habits that lead to Proactive Growth Professionally and Personally. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/mike-crandall-people/ Key Takeaways You only have to be gutsy 5 seconds at a time. You can almost ask any question or make any statement in 5 seconds or less. If you can get better at that, it will add up to big growth for an individual or business. The best thing about personal development is personal/life growth - relationships with family and friends outside of work. All growth and development is a 5 s

How do we come up with a new idea? Gert Garman facilitates brainstorming sessions and uses innovation processes to bring new ideas to light. “Gert” Garman is the owner of Broad Perspective, LLC.  Previously, she was the Director of the Collaborative Design Center at Valencia College.  Prior to that, she was a Creativity and Innovation Catalyst for Disney Destinations, where she facilitated brainstorming sessions and trained fellow Cast Members in Disney’s Innovation Toy Box for the Disney Parks and Resorts worldwide.  Gert has a long history of creating immersive experiences and breakthrough thinking results through her work with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and as an Assistant Athletics Director for the University of Central Florida Knights. She is certified as a facilitator in the Creative Problem Solving (CPS), Think X, Four Sight and Five Faces of Genius processes. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/gert-garman-people/ Key Takeaways Innovation is a process - trust the process and trust the facilitator It

Matt LaVoie discusses the differences between developing user interfaces for yourself and being a servant designer, empathizing with customers. Matt LaVoie is a User Experience Designer at PowerDMS, and founder of the Downtown UX Meetup group in Orlando, FL. He enjoys teaching and learning about UX, gardening and building things. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/matt-lavoie-people/ Key Takeaways So many times we solve problems for ourselves, we need to solve them with other people in mind Empathize with customers - be a servant designer It doesn't matter if you know how to use it, you developed it Conduct usability sessions and have everyone on the team sit with the customers, including developers Always keep in mind that there are real people you're writing this code for Watch people use the software you build According to Forrester Research we are officially in the age of the Customer It's no longer good enough to solve a problem, it needs to serve the customer well Have a human centric development p

Bill Kennedy is a managing partner at Ardan Studio in Miami, Florida, a mobile, web, and systems development company. He is also a co-author of the book Go in Action, the author of the blog GoingGo.Net, and a founding member of GoBridge which is working to increase Go adoption through diversity. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/william-kennedy-people/ Key Takeaways Go is a systems programming language that makes programming fun and makes developers more productive Go allows developers to write performant code easily Go runtime is built into the binary, nothing else to install Some very bright people are not applying for high profile Silicon Valley engineering positions because they are concerned about the tech interview process They've asked "Why do I want to go through that much pain just to get rejected?" It's not about what you know, its about learning and solving problems Bill will give anyone a chance when they show him they take it seriously Is the person you're interviewing a vampire? They s

Robert Okun is a former hedge fund manager who has turned to a career in technology. Mr. Okun has a BS in Management and Finance from New York University Stern School of Business and an MBA in Finance from Fordham Graduate School of Business. He has over 25 years of experience in trading, sales, Management, Banking and Investment Management at JP Morgan, UBS as well as his own private firm, RORS Management & Research. Mr. Okun studied technology and coding python under the tutelage of Mr Hartmann and is now the Chief Business Development Officer / Partner at The Silver Logic in south Florida where he's helping to build a culture of continuing education and using his financial background to solve his customers' toughest challenges. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/robert-okun-people/ Key Takeaways Learn from your mistakes and don't be afraid of having mistakes Bringing in new, diverse thoughts to an organization can foster innovation Sometimes you don't recognize the impact someone is making on your

John Sonmez was a shy, unathletic kid who one day decided that he could be anyone he wanted to be. With this realization, he began a journey of personal and career growth. Today he teaches software developers how to plan and execute their own journey of increasing their hourly rate, have better relationships and live a healthy lifestyle. John Sonmez is the creator of SimpleProgrammer.com, a PluralSight author and trainer with over 50 courses and the author of of the book Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual. John officially retired from his regular job at the age of 33 by focusing on his personal brand. Through his book, YouTube channel and podcast John Sonmez teaches software developers to succeed by turning up their productivity dial to 11, developing their people skills and establishing their own personal brand.  Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/john-sonmez-people/ Key Takeaways You can be whoever you want to be, even if it means faking it until you make it The attributes that "define"

"Your job is to make me not worry about mobile." When David Okun's new manager empowered him to take ownership of the mobile application, David took it upon himself to implement a new process across the team. Initially met with a collection of eye-rolling, David ignored the negativity and slowly introduced practices that increased the productivity across the whole organization. His approach included a self-deprecating humor that showed the team that he was an easy-going individual that was open to feedback. David Okun is the Lead Mobile Developer at IDScan Biometrics Limited in London, England. He is responsible for managing and progressing the vision of the mobile product, the people who work on the team and the customers that use it. As an iOS developer, David has published multiple apps across the Apple App Store, most of which are on open source on GitHub. Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/david-okun-people Key Takeaways Marketing is the most important aspect of app development Be proud if your app

Often technical folks rely on the data and facts and algorithms and technical skill-sets to further them in their career. Lauren Rutledge coaches her candidates that being able to show some emotional intelligence will never have to worry about a job. She sees many hiring managers that would much rather have mid-level skill set with great communication and attitude than a more experienced candidate that doesn't play well with others. Lauren Rutledge is a hungry, career minded professional that is motivated to grow herself & her team. Staffing Technology professionals has become a passion of hers and she appreciates the opportunity to work with some really great people everyday! Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/lauren-rutledge-people/ Key Takeaways Have a deeper relationship with the people you work with besides just the work Relate to people as people instead of a computer Soft skills are more important than technical skills Be responsible for your job search Do your homework on the organization and

The best time to develop a business relationship is well before the critical point that you need it. Chris Britton gets to know his vendors, partners and consultants over lunches and meetings in a low-stress environment. When crunch time comes and he needs to solve a critical business problem late at night or over the weekend, Chris' relationship investments pay off dividends. Chris Britton leads the vendor management team for a top insurance carrier where he’s worked in the industry for the past 17 years. He currently lives in Austin TX.   Key Takeaways It's all about developing relationships so that you can understand people's problems and better solve them Do your homework on  the person you're meeting with Develop relationships prior to an emergency Be aware of your surroundings to learn a new team's culture When you're meeting a group, pay attention to how they are treating each other to learn their intra-dynamics Respect other organization's cultures Be true to yourself and others and how you treat the

After a merger with another company, James Wilson was given the choice to change to a new role in the organization or leave. He accepted the opportunity but was not prepared for the culture change he was about to face: suddenly he felt like the new kid on the playground and no one wanted him around. What would you do if your colleague said, "We don't know what you're doing here. We think you're crap and you put out crap work. We don't know why you're still trying to make it here." James Wilson has been working in the medical software and billing industry for 10 years and currently manages a team that handles the data and electronic claims transmissions for one of the leading prosthetics and orthotics providers in the country. This episode of Hello Tech Pros is sponsored by… ME, Chad Bostick. As an enterprise IT leader I’ve gotten the opportunity to solve a number of different business problems including field worker productivity, back-office process efficiencies, enterprise system integrations, big data analy

When the SharePoint systems are in trouble, Marrell Sanders uses late-night firefighting sessions to build camaraderie with colleagues and promote a healthy dose of fun. In this episode we talk about the leader who taught him to express himself at work while having fun, how he deals with communication differences with offshore workers and when to invite a coworker into your personal social media circle. Marrell Sanders is a fun loving, technology enthusiast, musician, people person. As a technology speaker, minister and family man he loves seeing people's faces light up when they reach that "Ah Ha" moment. He's a self proclaimed backyard bbq aficionado, who enjoys small groups, but tries avoid getting lost in the crowd. Show notes at hellotechpros.com/marrell-sanders-people/ This episode is sponsored by Hello Tech Pros. Want to be a guest on the show? Chad Bostick here, and I’m helping professionals who work with technology build a personal brand and get connected to an audience of thousands of technologists,